Activist Umar Khalid told the Supreme Court on Friday that there is no evidence linking him to the February 2020 Delhi riots and denied any role in the alleged conspiracy behind the violence. Khalid, who is seeking bail in the case filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), argued that he has been wrongly accused and that no material proof connects him to the riots.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Khalid, told a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N. V. Anjaria that there was “no recovery of funds, weapons or any material evidence” against his client. “There are 751 FIRs, and I am charged in only one. If this is a conspiracy, it’s quite surprising,” Sibal said. He added, “On the dates when the riots took place, Umar Khalid was not even in Delhi. No witness statement connects him to any act of violence.”
Sibal also argued that Khalid deserves bail on grounds of parity, pointing out that fellow activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and Asif Iqbal Tanha, accused in the same case, were granted bail by the Delhi High Court in June 2021. He further said that the court’s earlier observation describing Khalid’s speech in Amravati as “inflammatory” was misplaced. “That speech is available on YouTube. He spoke about Gandhian principles,” Sibal said.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for activist Gulfisha Fatima, argued that she has been in jail for over five years since April 2020. He said that while the main chargesheet was filed in September 2020, the prosecution has been filing supplementary chargesheets “almost every year,” causing unreasonable delay. “Her bail plea has been listed more than 90 times since 2020,” Singhvi told the court. He added that Fatima’s alleged crime was merely creating a WhatsApp group to coordinate protests. “The real legal test is intent—whether there was any attempt to incite violence or create disharmony,” he said.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Sharjeel Imam, also sought bail, arguing that the police took three years to finish the investigation. “Out of the five years I have spent in custody, three went by because the probe was still ongoing,” he said. “My speeches were delivered nearly two months before the riots, and there is no direct or proximate link between them and the violence,” he added.
The hearing remained incomplete and will continue on November 3.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police opposed the activists’ bail pleas, claiming that they had conspired to “strike at the sovereignty and integrity of India” through a “regime change operation” disguised as peaceful protests.
Khalid, Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, and Meeran Haider were all booked under the UAPA and various sections of the IPC for allegedly being the masterminds behind the 2020 Delhi riots, which killed 53 people and injured more than 700. The violence took place during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
